


Freedom

by IaMcHrIsSi



Series: My Star Wars AUs [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Bail lives AU, Gen, it's a shameless fix-it, no really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-12 09:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4474343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of dying on Alderaan, Bail Organa was imprisoned by the Empire. Over four years later, after the battle of Endor, a group of Alliance soldiers more or less stumbles over him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prison

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a shameless fix-it, mostly because I really like Bail Organa and would really like for him to be able to survive somehow.

The tablet clatters on the floor. A meager meal, a bit water. The door is shut before Bail can do more than look at it. 

Slowly, he stands up. Bail was once a well trained man, not a soldier or an athlete, but always a bit stronger, a bit quicker than most expected of him. Not anymore. There is no room in his little cell to train, not enough food to sustain him if he does much more than lying or sitting somewhere (in the beginning there had been, but then he had tried to escape, and the guards had learned), and honestly, Bail almost does not see the point in it anymore. Why should he train, why should he eat, why should he do anything? Everything he ever cared for is gone. His wife, his daughter, his whole krething planet. Just gone. There are days he wakes up and wonders what he is even doing here, still. Why he is still alive, when everyone else is not.

He tries to fight those thoughts. He is still alive, and that means something, it has to mean something, because if it doesn’t, then Bail doesn’t know how to keep breahting. Sometimes he thinks that this is the Emporers last punishment, this senseless existence, removed from anything that ever mattered. Sometimes that gives him the strength to go on, to know that he is thwarting the Emporers plans, but more and more it just makes him tired.

Sighing, he grabs the tablet. He eats his dinner, silent and thinking. It is a good day. He can think, does not drown in an abyss of memories. With a steady hand he makes a mark on the wall next to his bed, the wall that is already full of marks counting the days of his imprisonment. Four years. Bail likes keeping up with those things. He’s always been good with numbers.

xxx

They got him in his ship. Bail was frantic, the message of Leia’s death just having reached him, and so he took his personal ship to fly to Coruscant. He was not quite sure what he wanted to do. Demand answers from the senate? Assassinate the Emporer? Break down crying? All he knew was that he he had to do something. Staying home, in the palace where he still saw Leia in all the corners, where Leia’s things were still spread out everywhere, where everyone grieved and cried and expected him to be able to hold it together… he had to leave, was not able to stay there.

That was why he was in his ship and safely out of Alderaans atmosphere when suddenly, all of the board computers started playing up. In the chaos, Bail at first did not realize what had happened. Then he turned around to look at Alderaan, reflex and fond memory and reassurance all in one, and found it gone.

He did not understand. How could Alderaan be gone? It was … that was not possible, it had been there just a moment ago… With a terrible sinking feeling he remembered the Death Star, remembered Leia’s mission. But his mind refused to put the pieces together. No, he thought, this is not happening. No.

He did not notice the Imperial ship until it was to late. But it did not matter. Bail did not resist when they arrested him. There was no reason to.

xxx

There is something going on today. Sometimes, when the guards are celebrating or when there are new incomers, Bail hears them on the floors, talking and laughing and kissing their superiors behinds. He hears them, today, too, but it’s not the usual sounds. Today, there are barked orders and near panicked screams and shouting from too far away for Bail to be able to discern the words. Every now and then, someone admonishes others to be more quiet.

The base is being attacked, and the Imps don’t want him to know.. It’s fairly obvious to Bail that this is what is happening. It makes him smile, for the first time in four years, both the fact that someone is obviously doing the Empire in and the fact that he knows something they don’t want him to know. He’d forgotten how good it feels, to be a step ahead of them and beat them at their own game.

Bail concentrates on the sounds. The defence does not seem to go very well for the Imps. The panic in the troopers voices rises, and Bail thinks he hears blaster shots. The only logical attacker of the Imps is the Alliance. Nobody else has the fire power and the guts to do it. Bail feels pride rise in his chest, warm and strong, for this group that he helped create. 

He wonders whether they are here to free him. He had expected it, in those first weeks after Alderaan, but after the weeks turned into months turned into years he had slowly given up hope and accepted that he was on his own. Most likely the Alliance assumed that he had been on Alderaan, and declared him dead as a result. He doesn’t blame them. It is what he would have done.

Suddenly, there is a burst of blaster fire, way closer than before. It is coming towards his cell, Bail realizes with a start. Do they know he is here? Or are they just trying to take over a base, stumbling over him in the process?

The fight has reached corridor outside his cell. There are curses thrown around, in basic, and Bail thinks he hears some Corellian, too.

Suddenly, a scream of pain. A body collapsing outside his cell. Bail is on the edge of his bed, ready to stand up and … well, what can he do? He is still locked in, and that door is tricky. He has spend four years trying to break the lock, but it’s impossible, at least from the inside.

Cheering from the Imps, curses on the attacking side. A man speaks up. The Corellian, Bail realizes. “Myers, Namaji, cover us. Ba'hmi, open that door. I don’t care how you do it, just open it. Lo Ma, stay where you are. Medical is on the way.”

It takes Bail a moment to realize that the door the Corellian is talking about is his cell door. When he does, he gets out of the way quickly. He almost shouts something, an encouragment, maybe, or a call for help, but then the door is flying through his room, and Bail is looking at a group of young soldiers, dressed in Alliance uniform, looking ragged and tired but wary and with their weapons out. Two men are firing at the Imps that are still standing on the other end of the corridor, while a young Twi'lek woman is staring at him, obviously the one who opened the door. A dark haired man with the insignia of a general is pointing his blaster directly at Bail. Bail lifts his hands, slowly, making sure not to present a threat.

“The bed is hard, but it’s better then the floor.” He says. His voice is strange, quiet and almost rusty. He has not used it in a long time.

The general gives him a once over, obviously decides that he isn’t a threat, and motions the Twi'lek (Ba'hmi, if Bail has heard correctly) to go inside. The young woman carries a young injured man, and after her the two other rebels join in, too, after firing a last round, that, from the sound of it, hits a least a few Imps. It’s more than a little crowded in Bails small prison cell.

Bail keeps his hands up and looks the general in the eyes. He might not have done this in a long time, but he is still a politician, still a senator and a vice-roy and a rebel. He can still make people take him seriously without having to pull rank or to wave around a weapon.

“Are you of the Alliance, general…?” He asks, quietly, peacefully, but with authority. It’s a tone he perfected during the clone wars, and he sees it work with this young man.

“Solo, sir. Yes, we are.” The man, Solo, answers. He is still holding his blaster in his hands, and he seems to listen for the Imps, who have stopped firing dfor the moment. Good. At least the man seems to know what he is doing. Then, suddenly, Solo’s eyes zero in on Bail.

“Might I have your name? We didn’t know that the Imps held prisoners here. Thought it was just their weapons storage. You do seem familiar, though.” He has a good eye, this Solo. Bail has no mirror in his little cell, but he doubts he would recognize himself if he did.

“My name is Bail Organa.” He says, and watches Solos mouth drop


	2. Medical

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bail is savely with the Alliance. He has a talk with the young general who saved him while waiting for a med-droid to confirm his identity.

The medical droid wirrs and clicks. It makes Bail nervous. 

It’s quite strange, he never used to be so nervous about droids. He actually used to like them. But now, in the room with only this droid

(the interrogation droid approaches, slowly and somehow menacingly, dark laughter from his old mentor, almost unrecognizable now, the mechanic breath of an old friend and present enemy, cold walls and an empty room…)

“You okay?” Solo is there, looking at him worriedly. Bail takes a deep breath. He hadn’t even heard the door opening, much less Solo coming in.

“Yes, yes, it’s nothing.” Bail says. He winces. He used to be a senator under the Empire, he was once a very good liar. But that just now? A terrible lie. Bail knows that Solo noticed it, too.

“Flashback?” The man asks. The look in his eyes is compassionate, but without even a hint of pity. It makes Bail’s respect for Solo rise another few notches.

“Yes.” Bail answers, truthfully this time. The young general lays a warm hand on Bails shoulder, a genuine gesture of reassurance that Bail himself has used to often to count. Solo makes sure that Bail sees the contact coming, though, and gives him enough time to move away or indicate that he doesn’t want it. The man definitively has experience with PTSD, then. Although Solo does seem nervous for some reason. Bail can’t quite figure out why.

“It’s not long now. Just the routine test and a the identitiy confirmation. Which is nothing against you, by the way.” Solo still looks a bit nervous, but his voice is steady. Bail appreciates it.

“I know. It’s exactly what I would do, too, so I can’t blame you for it. I was, after all, declared dead over four years ago. I was declared dead after Alderaan … after Alderaan, wasn’t I?” The humore leaves Bail’s voice with the last words. He still can’t truly talk about what happened to Alderaan, even four years later. Solo understands him anyway.

“Yes. Everybody assumed you were there, too.” Solo says quietly. He looks away. Bail wonders if he lost anyone on Alderaan, if maybe Solo himself is Alderaanian. But no, the man swears in Corellian, and that accent very much supports that origin. Maybe Solo knows some survivors? There have to be survivors, and most likely a lot of them joined the Alliance. It’s not impossible that Solo is friends with some of them.

“I was trying to go to Coruscant. To the senate. My… I had just received the message that my daughter had died.” Bail is not sure why he tells the young general this. It’s not like Solo knows Leia. To Solo, Leia is only one out of billions of lost Alderaanians. Maybe he’s heard of her, because she’s a princess, but in the end she is just another dead girl to who didn’t know her. “I’m not sure what I wanted to do there. But well, I guess when your daughter dies, you’re allowed to behave irrationally.” Bail tries to go for a sad smile, but even that fails miserably.

Solo, however, suddenly looks up again, surprised and … happy? Shocked? Afraid? Bail is not sure how to classify the emotion on Solo’s face. That in itself is a bit alarming. Bail has been a politician for so long, he is not used to not being able to read others. What Solo says next however completely shocks Bail and makes him forget about all that.

“Leia is not… Leia is alive.” There is an urgency in Solo’s eyes, a look of determination, but Bail doesn’t even truly notice it. He feels as though he is falling and being caught at the same time, as though … he can’t even begin to describe it. He looks the man directly into the eyes, trying to catch a sign of a lie, or a deception.

“Are you… are you sure?” Bail croaks. He feels his legs giving out under him, but ends up sitting on the bed. Solo must have gotten him there somehow. Bail doesn’t care. Leia is … for four years, he grieved, cried, mourned. But now… he doesn’t dare hope…

“Yes, absolutely. Saw her only a few hours ago. She’s on this ship, actually. Only reason she’s not here yet is that people want to be sure you’re the real deal before letting a member of High Command see you. The risk of infiltration and all that. And they don’t want to get her hopes up in case you’re fake.” Solo is telling the truth, Bail knows, in some hazy part of his brain that is not flooded with a wave of emotion.

He has to close his eyes. He doesn’t know for how long he is sitting there like this, tears of joy running down his face, sobbing and laughing at the same time, but when he looks up again, Solo is still there, looking slightly uncomfortable. Bail wants to hug the man, wants to sing and shout and dance, but before he can even move, the med droid beeps.

“Positive identification: Bail Organa, vice roy of Alderaan. The survivor and casuality lists of the Alderaan massacre have been updated. A period of rest for the patient is adviced, but there is no immediate danger to the patients life or well being detected.” The tone of the robot is clinical, without the slightest emotion, but Solo starts grinning brightly.

“I’ll com. Rieekan, and then I’ll tell Leia. They both will want to see you.” Solo tells him. Bail nods, still to overwhelmed to say anything. Some distant part of his mind notices that Solo referred to Leia by her first name, without any title, and files that information away for later, but right now it’s not important. 

Bail can’t stop smiling, tears in his eyes. Solo stays with him, until Carlist bursts in, face white but full of joy. Then the young general slips out, quietly and without Bail noticing.


	3. Telling Leia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Han tells Leia the happy news.

When Rieekan runs into the room, Han smiles. He’s always liked Rieekan, one of the few Alliance members who had never made a huge fuss over the fact that Han took over three years to officially join. Seeing those two men, a general and a vice-roy, survivors of Alderaan and old friends, reunite, could make anyone feel happy.

Quietly, without drawing attention to himself, he leaves the room. Han has to find Leia. He hasn’t told her, nobody has, because finding Bail Organa alive after four years? That had seemed to good to be true, and as any rebel learned quickly, something that seems to good to be true usually is. Nobody had wanted to get her hopes up in case it was all some elaborate plot from the Imps or something like that. But now, with Organa’s identity confirmed beyond doubt, Leia needs to know, and it needs to be him who tells her.

There are more than a few people on the corridors giving him curious looks. Most people have noticed the man that had been brought to medical, and there are a lot of rumors as to just who he is. None of them have actually gotten even close to the truth, yet, and Han hopes that it will stay that way, at least for a little while longer. Leia should be allowed to visit her father first, she should not have to deal with questions and congratiolations and the like before she herself had time with the man.

Leia’s room is empty, but he finds her (of course) in Luke’s smaller one. They are sitting on his bed, doing the twins thing where they hold hands and read some book together (it’s kind of cute, but he won’t ever tell her this, because he likes his hands exactly where they are, thank you very much). The book is an encyclopedia on Alderaans history, Han notes.

As he comes in, they look up as one. They’ve always been somehow in synch, even right at the beginning. There are days when Han wonders how nobody ever realized they were twins, when it’s so blindingly obvious to everyone now. Han decides to tell them without preamble. He knows Leia will appreciate it.

“Hey, you remember that prisoner that my group freed on the last raid?” He asks. Han is quite glad that Leia is already sitting, because going by how Bail reacted, she will need it.

“Of course. Nobody told me who he is. Do you know?” Leia sounds slightly miffed, as always when she is out of the loop for some reason or another. Han tries to surpress a soft smile, while Luke looks at him with interest.

“Yes. We needed to do some identity confirmation test, because Alliance had him as dead for the last four years.” Leia pales a bit at those words. She grips Luke’s hand more tightly, and looks Han straight in the eyes.

“Four years…?” She whispers. Luke closes the book, carefully marking the page they where on, but Leia doesn’t seem to notice, all her attention on Han.

“Yes. Both medical and Rieekan confirmed it. It’s your father, Leia.” Han says those words with what he hopes is a steady, reassuring voice. He almost hesistates at that last word, though, because he knows (oh yes, he knows) how complicated the word ‘father’ is to the twins these days. 

Leia sinks down a bit, leans against Luke. Tears spill from her eyes, but she seems too shocked to actually notice. Luke, good, sensible Luke, puts an arm around her shoulder and makes room on the bed with the other. Han takes the hint and sits down with them, putting his hand on Leia’s back, as she starts to sob.

It takes Leia a few moments to calm down, but when she does, she’s all business again. Like always. She wipes away her tears, resets her braids and stands up.

“Can I see him?” She asks, voice clear and clipped and only a little bit higher than usual. Leia looks into the mirror shortly, but her eyes are not really red. If he didn’t know her so well, Han would not have noticed that she’d cried.

“Of course. Rieekan is with him, now, but I told him I’d get you. He really wants to see you. Thought you were dead.” Han tells her, standing up and moving to walk next to her. Luke closes the door to his room, and then walks on Leia’s other side, a quiet, but reassuring presence.

“Is he… is he okay?” Leia asks. She stumbles over the words a bit, a testament to just how much emotion is swirling around in her head. Luke takes her hand again, and Leia shoots her brother a thankful smile.

“Mostly. He’s been a prisoner for four years, but the med droid didn’t really have anything to say. I think he does have some PTSD, though.” Han tells her.

“Who doesn’t, these days.” Luke’s voice is steady, with a bit self decraping humor thrown in. Leia half glares, half smiles at him.

Finally, they are back at medical. Leia hesistates a moment in front of the door, but Luke squeezes her hand and Han gives her a reassuring smile, and she opens it.

Bail Organa and Rieekan are sitting on the bed, tears in both their eyes. They look up as they hear the door open, and Organa opens his mouth. No words come out.

“Papa?” Leia asks in a quiet, girl-like voice. Her eyes shine with tears. For a moment, nobody moves. Then Leia suddenly rushes to her father, hugs him, and within seconds both of them are crying again.


	4. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bail and Leia finally meet again

Sitting next to Carlist, laughing and almost crying at the same time, Bail has to pinch himself every few minutes to make sure this is real, that this is not a dream, that he is really free.

Then, however, the door opens. Three persons step in, a woman and two men, but Bail doesn’t even notice the men. His eyes are entirely on the young woman in the middle, brunette and weary with big brown eyes and a white dress (she has always loved white, even when she was a little girl). For a moment he wonders if this is it, if he has finally gone insane, because his daughter, here with him, healthy and alive and seemingly happy, is way too good to be true. A second later, he decides he doesn’t care. Leia is here, and that is all that matters.

Bail opens his mouth, tries to speak, to say something, but no words come out. He wouldn’t know what to say anyway, doesn’t have the words to explain what he feels.

“Papa?” She asks, sounding like a little girl, like that time she had gotten lost on the market and and Bail had spend almost an hour searching her before finally finding her. Bail nods, tears filling his eyes, and Leia rushes forward, hugs him and buries her head in his shoulder.

They stay like this, hugging and crying and just feeling the other, making sure they are both alive. After a while (moments, minutes, hours, who cares? Bail has his daughter back, and that is the only thing that matters) Bail lifts his head to really look at his little girl. 

She’s not really all that little anymore, he thinks ruefully. Her hair is braided exactly like Breha taught her, but the clips are not the same she used at home. They are simpler, without any of the ornamentation and frills her old clips had. Her dress is white, but practical. Bail sees the outline of a blaster at her hip, worn casually and apparently regulary (what happened to his little girl, that she carries a blaster so comfortably, so naturally?).

The most striking change however is in her eyes. Still big and brown and beautiful, they are somehow… more guarded. The warmth in them has not fled entirely, but it is hidden behind steel that Bail is not used to. Grief is there, too, and anger, deeply buried but never forgotten.

But then Leia smiles, and the steel softens. She looks at him with an expression of pure joy that makes her seem like the 24 year old young lady she is, and he can’t stop smiling. He feels a new rush of joy cursing through him.

“Are you okay?” He asks Leia, and delights at her teary eyed nod, her half chocked laugh. She wipes away her tears, but refuses to let go of him.

“Yes. But I should really be asking you that, shouldn’t I?” She gives him a big smile, and Bail lets out a snort, revelling in the surrealism of the whole situation.

“I’m perfectly fine, sweetheart. A bit overwhelmed, maybe, and very happy to have you here with me. But tell me, what did you get up to in the last years?” He tries to keep the mood light, expecting a joke in answer, even though he really wants to know. 

Bail suddenly realises that he wants to know everything: What happened with the Tantative, how she escaped Imperial custody (for she must have been captured, there is no other reason for the Empire to declare her dead), what she did the last years, whether she fought. He knows from Carlist that Vader and the Emperor are dead (and didn’t he breath a heavy sigh of relief at that, knowing that Leia would be safe, at least from that side) but he wants to hear her side of the story, wants nothing more than to spend a few hours talking through it all.

“Well, I tried not to get into to much trouble.” Leia jokes. A half surpressed snort comes from the door. Bail looks up

Two young men stand there. Vaguely, Bail remembers them coming with Leia. One of them is familiar to Bail, it’s Solo, now leaning against the door, an expression of joy, humor, incredulity and … adoration? on his face. Interesting, very interesting. Bail will have to look deeper into that. But then his eyes fall on the second man, and he forgets all about Solo.

The second man, younger than Solo, more Leia’s age (exactly Leia’s age) is very, very familiar. Sandy blonde hair, shining blue eyes, relaxed posture, light saber at the hip. For a moment, Bail is thrown back into a time 25 years before now, where his old friends were still with him and the Senate still ruled and everything was right in the world. But the man (Luke, it has to be Luke, there is simply no other possibility) smiles, and Anakin never ever smiled like that, open and honest and free. 

Leia notices Bail’s staring, and turns to the two men. “Papa, these are my friends. You already now Han, and this is Luke. My brother.” She smiles when she says it, and in that moment she looks exactly like Padme. It does not hurt as much as Bail expected.


	5. Story Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bail, Rieekan, Han and the twins exchange stories.

It takes them a while until they are able to settle down and hold a real conversation. After the introductions there is a brief moment of silence, until they exchange slightly awkward greetings and start talking about rather random and unimportant things, all of them nervous and unsure. At one point Carlist gets called to High Command (and who even is High Command these days? Leia mentioned Mon, but the rest? Is Garm Bel Iblis still there, and what about Ackbar?), but returns rather quickly with a couple drinks.

Finally, they all sit down around the bed. Solo and Luke had gone to fetch some chairs, and with something to drink and the snacks Leia organized they finally can get down to some real talking. 

Solo is still nervous, Bail notes, while Luke seems completely relaxed. Bail also noticed that Leia and Luke seem to be constantly touching, holding hands and leaning into one another and such things. It’s an interesting thing, because Leia has never been the most tactile person, not even when she was small, but with Luke it just seems to come naturally to her.

Bail tells them of his capture and the time in prison. It’s not a long story, for four years he is basically forgotten in a prison cell. Still, all of them listen with interest, even Solo. Carlist had, interestingly, not said anything when the young general had stayed with them for the story time, had not even seemed to think it strange, which in turn seems a bit strange to Bail. But Bail isn’t blind, he sees the way Solo looks at Leia, full of adoration and warmth and awe, and he draws the appropriate conclusions. Leia could do worse, he thinks, but he isn’t about to tell Solo that. He kind of enjoys his daughter’s boyfriend being nervous because of him.

After Bail’s story is told, Leia tells him about the capture of the Tantitive. It’s obviously not the full story, she stops at some points and has to take a deep breath before continuing. Bail suspects she’s cutting out the gory and ugly bits for his sake, and a glance at Carlist pretty much confirms it. She tells him about being imprisoned on the Death Star, and, stuttering, about being forced to watch Alderaan’s destruction. At that point, Luke, who had sat quietly next to her, takes her hand. She smiles at her brother (and isn’t it strange, to think of Leia as having a brother?) and Bail wants nothing more than to take her into his arms, to shield her from all the evil in the galaxy. It’s impossible, he knows that, but he can’t help but wish he could do it.

Luke starts talking, tells him about finding the droids (R2D2 and C-3PO, and isn’t it ironic that those two droids, Padme’s favorites, would end up deciding her children’s fate?), tells him about Obi-Wan (Luke seems to have known the man by the name Ben Kenobi, he has to correct himself multiple times. But how in the world Obi-Wan thought Ben Kenobi would be a good cover identity Bail will probably never know). Luke has his own difficult moment, talking about his aunt and uncle, the Lars’s whom Bail has never met, never even talked to, but thought about a lot since Obi-Wan took Luke there. 

Solo jumps in, tells him about the bar episode, finally seeming to relax a bit. He tells him about the flight to Alderaan, about being caught by the Death Star’s traction ray and hiding in the smuggling bunks of his ship (the Millenium Falcon, the fastest ship in the galaxy, Solo states proudly. Luke and Leia roll their eyes, both extrasparated and fond). 

To this point, they’ve told the story in order, one after the other, but now they start to interupt each other, telling different versions of the same story. Han insists that getting lost in the trash was Leia’s fault, but Leia insists that it was the only way to survive. Luke says something about almost drowning, but Han tells Bail that the water was only knee deep. Bail is a bit confused and very amused, a sentiment Carlist seems to share. Given the ease and familiarity both the three younger ones and Carlist display with this argument, it seems not to be the first time they’ve had it. There is not anger in any of their voices though, so Bail concludes that it’s not truly a serious argument.

They get quieter again when they tell him about Obi-Wan’s death and their subsequent flight to Yavin. Carlist jumps in for the first time to give Bail a tactical rundown of the battle, with Luke and Solo throwing in a remark of how things were from their perspective from time to time. It’s a sober discussion, but Bail can see the pride in their eyes, even now, for having won that battle, for having made sure that the Death Star won’t ever hurt people again

And then they tell him about the second Death Star. It’s kind of surreal for him, to know that the Empire build two of those weapons, but it must have been even more surreal for the four fighters who tell him about it. They seem nonchalant about it, neither angry nor surprised or anything. Of course, it’s been a while for them, and there were four years between the first and the second Death Star, but still. They don’t talk all that much about those four years, stating that it’s not important right now, even though Leia promises to tell him those stories later.

Instead, Bail gets a report on the battle of Endor, of how Solo and Leia let the ground assault (what was Leia doing there, fighting like a soldier, why wasn’t she with the rest of High Command?), of the battle in space. Luke mentions having ‘distracted’ Vader and the Emperor, whatever that means. He is not forthcoming with details on that one, and given that Luke and Leia obviously know that they’re twins, which probably means they know about Anakin/Vader, that’s not all that surprising. Both Luke and Leia are a bit tense, hands still clasped together, which Solo obviously notes, because he goes on to tell Bail about the party afterwards, which gets the twins (still strange to think like this) to smile again.

By the time they’re finished almost five hours have gone by without any of them noticing. Carlist offers to arrange rooms for Bail, but Leia insists that he comes with her, to which Bail has absolutely no complaint. He doesn’t want to let her out of his eyes ever again.

Bail falls asleep on Leia’s bed, his daughter curled up at his side like she always did when she was a little girl coming to him because of a nightmare. He closes his eyes and for the first time in four years does not have nightmares.


	6. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bail's first few days after being freed.

The next few days go by in a haze of new faces (Leia has accumulated quite a few friends it seems, as most of them, medics and pilots and surviving Alderaanians, address her by name and joke with her), old friends (Mon is crying when she comes to see him. It's the first time since Padme's funeral he's seen her like this. When he takes her into his arms, she seems slight and frail, and he wants to know what happened to her, what she lost while he was gone) and info dumps delivered by pretty much everyone, even Winter, who is half a galaxy away but talks to him over holo call and is already on the fastest ship to him. It's confusing and strange and Bail is a bit overwhelmed by the many people, the many things demanding his attention, after he's spend so much time alone in a small cell.

Leia refuses to leave his side. He is incredibly grateful for it, even when he knows that it's as much for her benefit as for his. She fears that he might dissappear if she leaves him, that she will wake up and realize it's been a dream. It's written clearly in her eyes, in the way she zeroes in on him every so often, in the way she takes his hand or hugs him out of nowhere. He can't say he doesn't fear it as well, can't say he doesn't sometime think he will wake up and still be in his cell, or maybe even worse, wake up here and realize she's not here, that she died on the Tantative.

Carlist comes to visit whenever his duties allow it. Often they just sit together, talking and reminiscing and enjoying each others company. Bail had missed his friend very much, and sometimes they just sit there and stare at one another, convincing themselves that the other is real.

Both Solo and Luke come by often, too. They don't truly come for him, Bail knows, even though they seem to like him. They come for Leia, who smiles and laughs and generally lights up in their presences. Bail notices how much she relaxes when they are there, and wishes that he knew more about their relationship, about what adventures they went on, what horrors they survived together.

Solo is very obviously in love with Bail's daughter. It's really cute, how the younger man looks at her, like she is the only light in his world, the most beautifuly woman in the galaxy, how he will hold open a door for her and fetch her whatever she asks for immediately. They still haven't told Bail officially, but their body language, lingering touches, leaning into one another, sometimes even openly holding hands, speaks for itself. They smile at one another with love and trust, and Bail is reminded of Breha, of how they'd smile exactly the same way. He always feels a bit sad thinking about it, remembering what he's lost, but he is happy for Leia, happy that she found love in the young general.

Luke... Luke and Leia are incredibly close. If Bail didn't know better, he wouldn't believe that they hadn't known each other until four years ago. They are constantly touching, almost as if grown together. They will often laugh about some joke he doesn't understand, and they seem very in tune with each others emotions. Indeed, when Leia has nightmares, Luke is often there before Bail even wakes up, even though the mans rooms are quite a few corridors away. It's makes Bail slightly uneasy.

Seeing them on the bed again, holding hands and telling him some story about a mission that took them to a desert planet and on which apparently Luke felt completely at ease while Leia and Han were sweating and cursing, Bail lets his mind wander. It's not that he isn't interested in the tale they are telling, it's just that he needs a moment, needs to understand his own feelings.

Why is he so uncomfortable with Luke and Leia being so close? Why does it make him feel so strange when they are referred to as 'the twins'? Half the base seems to do it. He's even heard Carlist doing it. So why does it make Bail feel so uneasy?

Part of the it is fear. Technically Bail knows that Vader and the Emperor are dead, that they can't hurt Luke and Leia anymore, that they are _safe_. But knowing it and actually not being afraid of it anymore are two very different things, especially as Bail has spend almost twenty years afraid of what would happen if they ever met, if they ever fell into the hands of the Emperor. It's understandable, and everyone would understand. But it's not all there is.

Guilt. Bail feels incedibly guilty. They could have been like this from the beginning, could have grown up together. They could have spend their childhoods together, always hand in hand, always the 'Organa twins' (Or maybe the 'Skywalker twins'?) They could have had each other from the day of their birth. But Bail took that away from them. He decided that they should not know one another, that they should never know what it's like to grow up with a sibling.

Not him alone, no, but he was part of it, part of the group that decided to tear them apart, to raise them on different sides of the galaxy. And yes, it was the safest way, the at that time best decision for both of them, but that doesn't change the fact that it was wrong. They never had the right to do it.

Suddenly, Bail wonders whether the Naberries know. They are Padme's family, _Luke and Leia's_ family. They should know, should have been told the truth immediately after Padme's death. At that time it had been to risky, though, and even years afterwards that was what Bail told himself whenever he considered going to them and just telling them the truth.

Do Luke and Leia even know about Padme? Do they know the Naberries exist? Pooja and Leia had been close friends, Bail remembers. They had always looked like sisters when they were together, laughing and gossiping and working on a new petition for the senate. It had made both Bail and his wife quite uncomfortable, because they truly could not understand how nobody else saw it, how nobody else realized that the two of them looked so similar. Bail wonders what Pooja does now. Did she join the rebellion? What is Naboo's stance on all this? He resolves to ask Carlist at the next opportunity, or maybe Mon. His daughter and her brother need to know about their mother.

Bail looks at the two of them, sitting in front of him. They know he split them up, know that it was him who decided that they should grow up with half a galaxy between them. They don't seem to blame him for it. It almost makes it worse that they don't. With anger, Bail knows how to deal, even with sadness, but this, complete acceptance... Bail still waits for the other shoe to drop, for them to turn on him because he kept them apart.

Luke and Leia are still talking. They are laughing, playfully fighting about a detail. They are happy, relaxed. Bail wants to capture this moment, wants to keep it forever. He smiles and tries to get back into the story they are telling.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr as lukeleiahan


End file.
